Halloween Weekend at Busan’s International Fireworks Festival
The Busan International Fireworks Festival was the event I was most looking forward to in October. I absolutely love fireworks shows and this one promised to be amazing, set against the backdrop of the wide sea littered with ships and the amazing bridge viewed from Gwangali beach. We chose to go to the October 29th show, the night of the International show which we were told was the biggest and most impressive. As it was Halloween weekend, we went in our costumes (most of us as some sort of animal so we could dress up in those furry hats to withstand the cold) and planned to head out for the night in Haeundae near our hostel where lots of bars were hosting Halloween parties.
Gwangali beach was PACKED. This event is huge and luckily two of our friends made their way to the beach early in search of seafood (while we enjoyed some delicious Indian food at Namaste at Haeundae) and were able to scout out a nice spot for our group around 4p. The show didn’t start until 8p so we spent the afternoon people watching, mixing up some soju & fantas, and making new friends with our neighbors, a hilarious group of seniors that we spent the night offering food and drinks with back and forth.
We also befriended a family sitting on the other side of us and they had the most adorable daughters. As is got closer to showtime people were going absolutely crazy trying to force their way onto the beach and a few of out party started guarding our area, helping stop the kids and the elderly from being TRAMPLED!!
The rain started right before the show and everyone opened up their umbrellas, making for a less than ideal view from our spot. A few of us relocated to the beach when the show started and had a really great view. Some elements of the show were too impressive; I’ve seen some really well designed fireworks displays in my day. However, the magnitude of the show as definitely overwhelming! It lasted for a full 45 minutes and there were fireworks set off from the bridge, the far end of the shore, and from boats out on the water. There were lasers and music to go along with the whole thing and I was in complete awe of just how massive the event was. From the thousands of people crammed onto the beach to the light orgy happening in the sky… I was impressed.
Getting back to Haeundae was quite a trek. The roads leading away from the beach were absolutely packed with people and the trains themselves were insane. Once we did finally get back to Haeundae we spent the evening hopping around enjoying the Halloween festivities in the cold, wet weather with a slew of other foreigners looking to recreate this October 31 tradition abroad.
We spent our second day enjoying the Haeundae area for a few hours before heading back to Daegu on the slow train. We strolled Haeundae beach and the path leading to the lighthouse and the mermaid statue near the APEC center. It was a lovely day without any rain and we got the enjoy a few hours relaxing by the beautiful seaside.
Our train journey back was far less enjoyable. We boarded the train only to find other people sitting in some of our seats… confused we checked our tickets with a conductor and found that the ticker booth vendor has sold us tickets for the day before, meaning we didn’t have seats on that train. The ride was spent by some constantly getting up for new passengers with reserved seats at each stop, and having to scout out a new empty spot. Not the most enjoyable way to spend two hours on a train after a long night of bar hopping in the rain!
